The West Virginia Primary Care Association, in partnership with Capital Link, is offering an Advancing Financial Strength Program this spring for Community Health Centers. There will be a webinar held on April 3 and an in-person meeting scheduled for April 12 in Charleston, with additional webinars to follow. 

During times of rapid change, only those organizations that are flexible, adaptive, and productive will excel. Health centers are continually expected to balance high quality care and patient and staff satisfaction with the need to manage costs. Often it is perceived that there is a trade-off between these items. We will discuss how learning organizations "discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels" to achieve the results they want.

For more information, or to register, please contact the WVPCA at [email protected]. 

Join the West Virginia Primary Care Association (WVPCA) as we host an open enrollment 5 (OE5)debrief and Health Literacy Workshop. The meeting will provide an opportunity for CACs and Navigators to discuss the post enrollment period following OE5, share success stories and discuss strategies for Special Enrollment. Participants will discuss what steps can be taken to capture the remaining uninsured population within the state and what open enrollment may look like in 2018.

CACs and Navigators have shared stories about communication challenges when working with individuals. These challenges often resulted from limited literacy capabilities of the individuals. The WVPCA has partnered with Mary Emmett, Ph.D. and Nancy Daugherty to provide CACs and Navigators with strategies to identify communication barriers and techniques to overcome them. Armed with new skills, CACs and Navigators will be more prepared to provide guidance to individuals during the 2018 open enrollment period and throughout the year when working with patients with low literacy skills.

For more information, and to register, click  here.

A $1.3 trillion, 2,232-page omnibus spending bill covering everything from defense to border security to opioids has been approved. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 averts what would have been the third shutdown of the year.  Some of the things that the bill does:

The bill does NOT:

Any nonprofit, including federally recognized Indian tribes, in the continental United States is eligible to apply.

NACHC has released a new, data-driven issue brief showcasing how health centers have responded to a rapidly growing need for substance use disorder services over the past two decades. The brief, Rising to the Challenge: Community Health Centers are Making Substance Use Treatment More Accessible than Ever, shows how health centers across the nation are breaking down barriers to care, integrating behavioral health with primary care, and providing community-level solutions to towns and cities hit hardest by substance use disorder, including opioids. The brief also lays out important policy supports to build on health centers' important contributions to battling SUD.

The California Primary Care Association, in partnership with the RAND Corporation and Boston University, is studying the implementation and effectiveness of embedding a new therapeutic intervention for PTSD within community clinics and health centers. Currently, they are seeking  interested health centers of various sizes for participation in this national study, which has important implications for the future of PTSD treatment in community health. A one-hour  overview webinar will introduce the audience to the Written Exposure Therapy (WET) intervention, describe the study parameters, and provide an opportunity to ask questions of the RAND research team.

• Understand how WET compares to other evidence based practices for PTSD treatment
• Learn more about the study design and inclusion/exclusion criteria
• Review study involvement for health centers, CHC staff, and CHC patients
• Have the chance to ask questions of the research team

The webinar is offered at no cost to participants and will be held on Wednesday April 11 at 1:00 PM and registration is available here. 

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) seeks clincians who demonstrate an interest in serving the nation's medically underserved populations and remaining in Health Professional Shortage Area beyond their service commitment. The deadline for applications is April 23, 2018. The 2018 Application and Program Guidance has the detailed information to apply, including eligibility requirements, site information, documentation, and service requirements. Please read carefully before you start your Loan Repayment Program application. Approved sites are located across the U.S., in both urban and rural areas. Visit the WVPCA careers page and Health Workforce Connector to find jobs and explore information about employers.